336 Mediaeval and Modern Ordnance. [July, 
a 295-pounder, and the other, the “‘ Veneziana,” was a 145- 
pounder. “‘ Pisani established these guns in battery on the 
bank, and proceeded to bombard Brondolo. On the 22nd 
January the great bombard was fired, and it struck the Cam- 
panile of Brondolo, knocking down a great piece of the 
wall, the stones of which struck and killed the Genoese 
general and his nephew. On the 23rd the same bombard 
knocked down a great piece of the wall of the same Cam- 
panile and killed twenty-two men. Capt. Brackenbury, 
after tracing the history of cannon through the second half 
of the fourteenth century, states in the following few per- 
tinent words the conclusions to which he is led :—‘‘ Cannon 
of iron and bronze under the various names of guns, bombards, 
cannon, sclopi or schioppi, are found bound down to large heavy 
wooden beds, and employed in sieges both for attack and 
defence throughout the whole period. Projectiles of lead, 
stone, and, in Italy, iron, and even bronze were thrown by 
them ; also arrows and Greek fire. But it appears from the 
length of time which sieges lasted that the art of opening a 
practicable breach by means of cannon had not yet been 
invented. Indeed it is very doubtful whether with such 
powder sufficient force could have been obtained for that 
purpose. This powder was still a comparatively feeble 
agent; the ingredients pounded by hand in a mortar were 
themselves but imperfeCtly purified, and when reduced to a 
state of fine powder the gas must have passed very slowly 
through the mixture, and an immense quantity of the charge 
must have been blown out without being ignited. To prevent 
excessive windage the leaden shot were driven forcibly home 
into the bore of the piece by means of a mallet and drift, 
and the soft nature of the metal allowed them completely to 
fill the bore. With iron and stone shot fired from the large 
guns no drift was used, but the shot was inserted from the 
muzzle and the powder by a scoop from the breech, which 
was then closed by a wooden tompion ; the hot iron was still 
used to fire the charge through a vent, which was often 
coveredto keep the powderdry. But rough as these appliances 
were we must not despise too much the cannon of the fourteenth 
century. They were suited to the age. To knock down 
such a piece of wall as to kill twenty-two men at once is a 
feat which is not easy even in these days.” 
Fortunately for military archeologists, there are in 
existence good examples of early ordnance whose date is 
well established; the oldest known being two English guns 
abandoned at the siege of St. Michel, Normandy, at the 
end of October, 1423, and which now remain in front of the 
